Trump bashes Iran peace proposal as Tehran seems to Russia for backing

[ad_1] 3 hours in the past Trump squeezes Iran with maximum pressure — why it hasn’t forced a breakthrough

After two months of conflict, neither a deadly bombing campaign nor a blockade on Iranian exports has forced Tehran to make the concessions the Trump administration is seeking.

The campaign has intensified in recent weeks, targeting Iran’s oil exports and financial networks while a naval blockade has disrupted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global energy flows. U.S. officials argue the combination of military pressure and economic isolation is intended to weaken Iran’s capabilities and force it back to the negotiating table on more favorable terms.

While the U.S. has killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of top military and political figures, the regime itself remains intact. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was selected to succeed him, and leadership remains firmly hardline.

Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East negotiator and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, said the administration may have misjudged the type of negotiating partner it would face.

"Trump was looking for an Iranian Delcy Rodriguez," he told Fox News Digital. "More likely, he's going to end up with an Iranian Kim Jong Un."

He expressed doubt that any decisive victory was possible while the current Iranian regime remained in power.

"And we do not have the capacity to remove the regime," he said.

The standoff increasingly has become a test of whether U.S. pressure can be converted into political concessions — or whether it is instead being diluted through workarounds, institutional resilience and competing constraints.

So far, analysts say, Iran has proven more capable of absorbing and rerouting pressure than Washington has been able to translate it into durable gains.